Abusing an animal
is a way for a human to find power/joy/fulfillment through the torture of a victim they know cannot defend itself.
An estimated 6 to 8 million
dogs and cats are euthanized in animal shelters each year in the United States.
Millions more are abandoned, only to suffer from disease, starvation or injury before dying.
Even though you might have never thought about it, but
the "out in the open" kind of pet abuse isn't the only way that animals are tortured and killed. Not just cats and dogs, but
so many other kinds of animals are suffering each day as they're grown and killed for food, are experimented on in labs, made
to perform under constant fear in circuses and rodeos, trapped or grown for fur, leather, silk, etc, etc, etc.
In 88 percent of 57 New Jersey families being treated
for child abuse, animals in the home had been abused.
In one study of battered women, 57 percent of those with pets said their partners had harmed or
killed the animals. One in four said that she stayed with the batterer because she feared leaving the pet behind.
While animal abuse is an important sign of child
abuse, the parent isn't always the one harming the animal. Children who abuse animals may be repeating a lesson learned at
home; like their parents, they are reacting to anger or frustration with violence. Their violence is directed at the only
individual in the family more vulnerable than themselves: an animal. One expert says, "Children in violent homes are characterized
by ... frequently participating in pecking-order battering," in which they may maim or kill an animal. Indeed, domestic violence
is the most common background for childhood cruelty to animals.
